Stud assembly

ABSTRACT

An implementation of a stud assembly disclosed herein includes an external stud and an internal stud inserted longitudinally into the external stud, wherein the internal stud has cross-sectional dimensions that are smaller than the cross-sectional dimensions of the external stud. Each of the internal stud and the external stud may include a web, two flanges connected to the web, and two lips connected to the two flanges. Furthermore, each of the internal stud and the external stud may be created from a cold-rolled steel.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a Non-Provisional patent application of and claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/739,383 entitled “Stud Assembly,” and filed on Dec. 19, 2012, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This application relates to building construction components and, more particularly, to stud components used in commercial and residential structures.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other features, details, utilities, and advantages of the claimed subject matter will be apparent from the following more particular written Detailed Description of various implementations and implementations as further illustrated in the accompanying drawings and defined in the appended claims.

An implementation of a stud assembly disclosed herein includes an external stud and an internal stud inserted longitudinally into the external stud, wherein the internal stud has cross-sectional dimensions that are smaller than the cross-sectional dimensions of the external stud. Each of the internal stud and the external stud may include a web, two flanges connected to the web, and two lips connected to the two flanges. Furthermore, each of the internal stud and the external stud may be created from a cold-rolled steel.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical prior art stud assembly.

FIG. 2 illustrates a three-dimensional view of an example external stud used to create a nested stud assembly disclosed herein.

FIG. 3 illustrates a three-dimensional view of an example internal stud used to create a nested stud assembly disclosed herein

FIG. 4 illustrates a configuration of an example nested stud assembly.

FIG. 5 illustrates example dimensions of an example internal stud and an external stud.

FIG. 6 illustrates a three-dimensional view of a process of assembling the example nested stud assembly.

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate three-dimensional view of a process of assembling the example nested stud assembly.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example schematic view of an external stud.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example schematic view of an internal stud.

FIG. 10 illustrates a schematic view of an arrangement of studs in an example stud assembly.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flowchart of a process of making the stud disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

Studs are commonly used in the construction industry to provide a support for a wall surface and further support a roof, a floor or the like. Studs can be comprised of a variety of materials including wood and metal. Metal studs are commonly used in a variety of construction styles as they can be manufactured economically and are light, strong and durable. Metal studs are commonly fashioned from a piece of sheet metal that is cold formed to desired specifications. Cold forming involves working a material below its recrystallization temperature.

Light gauge cold-formed metal studs (measured in gauge or thickness) have limited structural capacity to withstand vertical forces acting on buildings in the form of live and dead loads. Additionally, they have limited capacity to withstand lateral loads acting on buildings such as seismic (ground motion) or wind. To increase the structural capacity of light gauge material it is typical to increase the gauge or thickness of the material. Additionally, commonly used stud assemblies incorporate multiple studs flange-to-flange or web-to-web. FIG. 1 illustrates such prior art stud assemblies 100 and 102. Specifically, the stud assembly 102 includes two studs joined web-to-lip, whereas the stud assembly 104 includes two studs joined lip-to-lip. Using multiple studs or hot rolled steel adds cost to the structure in both labor and material, and while multiple studs may add vertical bearing capacity, this type of assembly contributes nominally to resisting forces that create out-of-plane deflection such as wind or seismic.

An implementation of a stud assembly disclosed herein provides a nested stud assembly wherein an internal stud is nested in an external stud. The nested stud assembly disclosed herein provides lateral and vertical force resistance without the cost and difficulty of assembly when incorporated in a light gauge building framing system. The nested stud assembly disclosed herein has structural capacities and performance similar to that of a column. It is significantly stronger than stacked studs in its capacity to resist vertical and lateral forces. Furthermore, under vertical loading one stud in the assembly is in compression while the other is in tension. As a result, the disclosed nested stud assembly has much greater capacity than a single stud or stacked studs to withstand torsional forces as well.

FIG. 2 illustrates a three-dimensional view of an example external stud 200 used to create a nested stud assembly disclosed herein. As illustrated, the external stud 200 includes a web 202, flanges 204, and lips 406. While in the example implementation, the web 202 has a profile with an indented arc 210 in the middle, in an alternative implementation, the web 202 may have a different profile. For example, the web 202 may be flat, have a rectangular indentation, a triangular indentation, etc.

The indented arc 210 makes the external stud 200 flexible such that the external stud 200 may be assembled with an internal stud to form a stud assembly. For example, the flanges 204 of the external stud 200 with the indented arc 210 may be bent out as represented by the dotted lines 212. Furthermore, each of the flanges 204 may also be slightly curved so as to allow flexion thereof. For example, the flanges 204 may be configured such that the width of the external stud 200 at the top (near the lips 206) is smaller than the width of the external stud 200 at the bottom (near the web 202).

FIG. 3 illustrates a three-dimensional view of an example internal stud 300 used to create a nested stud assembly disclosed herein. Specifically, the internal stud 300 has a web 302, flanges 304, and lips 306. In one implementation, the internal stud 300 is configured such that the overall cross-sectional dimensions of the internal stud are smaller than the overall cross-sectional dimensions of the external stud 200 disclosed in FIG. 2.

For example, the internal stud 300 may be created by shrinking the profile of an external stud by a roll forming machine. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the a web 302, the flanges 304, and the lips 306 of the internal stud 300 may be shrunk by processing the internal stud 300 through a special roll forming machine that compresses the three sides 302. The resulting internal stud 300 can be inserted into the external stud 200 disclosed in FIG. 2.

Furthermore, the internal stud 300 may also include an arcular indentation 310 in the web 302, wherein the arcular indentation 310 makes the internal stud 300 more flexible. For example, the arcular indentation 310 allows bending of the flanges 304 towards each other to further reduce the cross-sectional area of the internal stud 300. Therefore, the internal stud 300 may be inserted telescopically into an external stud, such as the external stud 200 disclosed in FIG. 2 without creating unnecessary friction between the outer surface of the internal stud 300 and the inner surface of the external stud 200.

FIG. 4 illustrates a configuration of an example nested stud assembly 400. Specifically, FIG. 4 illustrates a three-dimensional view 404 of the nested stud assembly 400 and a cross-sectional view 406 of the nested stud assembly 400. The nested assembly 400 includes an internal stud 408 that is inserted lengthwise, or telescopically, into the external stud 410. In the illustrated implementation of the nested stud assembly 400, the external stud 410 also includes internal supports 412 on two flanges of the external stud 410. However, in an alternative implementation, such internal supports may not be provided. The internal supports 412 supports the flanges of the internal stud 408.

The external stud 410 of the example nested stud assembly 400 has a web with a flat surface whereas the internal stud 408 of the example nested stud assembly 400 has a web with an arcular surface. However, in an alternative implementation, both the internal stud 408 and the external stud 410 may have arcular indentation, or none of the internal stud 408 and the external stud 410 may have arcular indentation.

FIG. 5 illustrates example relative dimensions (not to scale) of an example external stud 500 and an internal stud 502. Specifically, FIG. 5 illustrates that the cross-sectional width W_(e) of the external stud 500 is larger than the cross-sectional width W, of the internal stud 502. Similarly, the cross-sectional height H_(e) of the external stud 500 is larger than the cross-sectional height H_(i) of the internal stud 502. The smaller cross-section of the internal stud 502 compared to the external stud 500 allows telescopic insertion of the internal stud 502 into to the external stud 500.

FIG. 6 illustrates a three-dimensional view of a process of assembling the example nested stud assembly 600. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 6, an internal stud 602 is inserted into an external stud 604 along the longitudinal direction 606. In one implementation, the web surface of the internal stud 602 and the web surface of the external stud 604 are opposite each other. In other words, the lips of the internal stud 602 are in contact with the inner surface of the web of the external stud 604. Similarly, the lips of the external stud 604 are in contact with the outer surface of the internal stud 602.

FIG. 7 illustrates an alternate three-dimensional view of a process of assembling the example nested stud assembly 700. Specifically, the stud assembly 700 is partially completed with at least part of an internal stud 702 telescopically inserted into the external stud 704 along a direction 706.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example schematic view of an external stud 800. Specifically, the external stud 800 includes two lips 802, a web 804 on the opposite side of the lips 802, and flanges 806 connecting the web 804 to the lips 802. In one implementation, the flanges 806 are slightly curved (as shown by the straight lines 812) towards each other near the web 804 resulting in the width of the external stud 800 at the lip end being smaller than the width of the external stud 800 near the web end. The web 804 of the external stud 800 also includes an indentation 810 towards the lip end of the external stud (towards the inside) 800. The illustrated indentation 810 is in the form of an arc, however, alternatively, the indentation 810 may be in another shape.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example schematic view of an internal stud 900. Specifically, the internal stud 900 includes two lips 902, a web 904 on the opposite side of the lips 902, and flanges 906 connecting the web 904 to the lips 902. In one implementation, the flanges 906 are slightly curved (as shown by the straight lines 912) towards each other near the web 904 resulting in the width of the internal stud 900 at the lip end being smaller than the width of the internal stud 900 near the web end. The web 904 of the internal stud 900 also includes an indentation 910 towards the lip end of the internal stud (towards the inside) 900. The illustrated indentation 910 is in the form of an arc, however, alternatively, the indentation 910 may be in another shape.

The width of the internal stud 900 is smaller than the width of the external stud 800 disclosed in FIG. 8. For example, the width of the internal stud 900 along the web 902 is smaller than the width of the external stud 800 along the web 802. This allows inserting the internal stud 900 into the external stud 800 along a length (into or out of cross-sections of FIGS. 8 and 9).

FIG. 10 illustrates a schematic cross-sectional view of an arrangement of studs in an example stud assembly 1000. Specifically, the stud assembly 1000 illustrates an internal stud 1002 nested into the external stud 1004.

The example stud assembly 1000 is illustrated to have a small space between a web 1012 of the internal stud 1002 and a lip 1010 of the external stud 1004, in an alternative implementation, the web 1012 of the internal stud 1002 and the lip 1010 of the external stud 1004 may be in contact with each other. Similarly, while the example stud assembly 1000 is illustrated to have the flanges 1014 of the internal stud 1002 in contact with the flanges 1016 of the external stud 1004, in an alternative implementation, the flanges 1014 of the internal stud 1002 in contact with the flanges 1016 of the external stud 1004 may not be in contact at all. For example, in such an implementation, the internal stud 1002 is secured within the external stud 1004 via contact between the web 1012 of the internal stud 1002 with the lip of the external stud 1004 or via contact between a lip of the internal stud 1002 and the web of the external stud 1004.

Yet alternatively, the internal stud 1002 may be secured within the external stud 1004 using a support structure 1030 as illustrated by the dotted lines.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example flowchart 1100 of a process of making a nested stud assembly disclosed herein. Specifically, at operation 1102 an external stud is created. For example, such external stud may be created from cold rolled steel using a roll-forming machine. Subsequently, at operation 1104, an internal stud is created. For example, the internal stud may also be created from cold rolled steel using a roll-forming machine. At operation 1106, the internal stud 1106 is shrunk using a specialized roll-forming machine that shrinks the cross-sectional profile of the internal stud. Once the internal stud is created, an operation 1108 creates the stud assembly by longitudinally (along the lengths of the external stud and the internal stud) inserting the internal stud into the external stud.

The above specification, examples, and data provide a complete description of the structure and use of exemplary embodiments of the invention. Since many embodiments of the invention can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, the invention resides in the claims hereinafter appended. Furthermore, structural features of the different embodiments may be combined in yet another embodiment without departing from the recited claims. Although the present invention has been described with reference to preferred embodiments, workers skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the scope of the invention. The implementations described above and other implementations are within the scope of the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A stud assembly, comprising: an external stud; and an internal stud inserted longitudinally into the external stud, wherein the internal stud has cross-sectional dimensions that are smaller than the cross-sectional dimensions of the external stud.
 2. The stud assembly of claim 1, wherein each of the external stud and the internal stud includes a web, two flanges, and two lips.
 3. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the cross-sectional width of the web of the internal stud is smaller than the cross-sectional width of the web of the external stud.
 4. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the cross-sectional heights of the flanges of the internal stud are smaller than the cross-sectional heights of the flanges of the external stud.
 5. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the internal stud is created by shrinking another external stud using a roll-forming machine.
 6. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the web of the external stud comprises an indentation substantially near the center of the external stud and towards the lips of the external stud.
 7. The stud assembly of claim 6, wherein the indentation is in the shape of an arc.
 8. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the web of the internal stud comprises an indentation substantially near the center of the internal stud and towards the lips of the internal stud.
 9. The stud assembly of claim 8, wherein the indentation is in the shape of an arc.
 10. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the lips of the internal stud are curved such that the ends of the lips away from the flanges of the internal stud are closer to the web of the internal stud than the ends of the lips closer to the flanges of the internal stud.
 11. The stud assembly of claim 2, wherein the flanges of the internal stud are curved such that the ends of the flanges closer to the lips of the internal stud are closer to each other compared to the ends of the flanges closer to the web of the internal stud.
 12. The stud assembly of claim 2 further comprising support mechanisms attached to the internal surfaces of each of the flanges of the external stud.
 13. A device comprising: an external stud comprising an external stud web, two external stud flanges attached to each of two web ends of the two external stud flanges, and two external stud lips attached to each of two lip ends of the external stud flanges; and an internal stud comprising an internal stud web, two internal stud flanges attached to each of two web ends of the two internal stud flanges, and two internal stud lips attached to each of two lip ends of the internal stud flanges, wherein the width of the external stud web is larger than the width of the internal stud web and the height of the external stud flanges is larger than the height of the internal stud flanges.
 14. The device of claim 13, wherein the internal stud is positioned inside the external stud.
 15. The device of claim 14, wherein the internal stud is positioned inside the external stud such that the internal stud lips are in proximity of the external stud web and the internal stud web is in proximity of to the external stud lips.
 16. The device of claim 14, wherein each of the external stud and the internal stud are created from cold rolled steel using a roll-forming machine.
 17. The device of claim 14, wherein the external stud further comprising support mechanisms attached to inside surfaces of each of the external stud flanges.
 18. A method, comprising: forming an external stud comprising an external stud web, two external stud flanges attached to each of two web ends of the two external stud flanges, and two external stud lips attached to each of two lip ends of the external stud flanges; forming an internal stud comprising an internal stud web, two internal stud flanges attached to each of two web ends of the two internal stud flanges, and two internal stud lips attached to each of two lip ends of the internal stud flanges; shrinking the internal stud such that cross-sectional dimensions of the internal stud along the length of the internal stud are smaller than cross-sectional dimensions of the external stud; and inserting the internal stud into the external stud longitudinally.
 19. The method of claim 18, wherein forming an external stud further comprising forming an external stud from cold-rolled steel.
 20. The method of claim 18, wherein inserting the internal stud into the external stud further comprising inserting the internal stud into the external stud such that at least two or more of the external side surfaces of the internal stud are in contact with the internal side surfaces of the external stud. 